100 years ago in The Record
Wednesday, May 30, 1917
“Its significance deepened by the fact that America is again at war and by the vision that undoubtedly in the near future Troy will have a far greater number of veterans’ graves to revere and make beautiful, Memorial day was observed here,” The Record reports. Today is the 49th Memorial Day commemoration in Troy. The holiday, originally known as Decoration Day, was originally dedicated to veterans of the Civil War, which ended 52 years ago, in 1865. The holiday “saw the gradually thinning ranks of the veterans of the Civil war thinner than they have ever been before,” our reporter writes, “and the step of the survivors less firm. Most of them had to carry canes, and the marks of age were otherwise plainly evident, but age had not stolen that which it can never steal, the fighting light and that love of country which shone forth from the old soldiers’ eyes.” The U. S. declaration of war against Germany last month “gave to the program a greater solemnity and a deeper significance. These were evident in the faces of those who participated and the witnesses. Hats came off quickly as soon as the band which headed the line started a national tune, and a more profound reverence was bestowed upon the flag.” The parade marches at 1:30 p.m. from the county court house to the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, where the Women’s Relief Corps holds services for the unknown dead of the Civil War and Spanish-American War. The procession continues to the Troy Central School, where the day’s principal patriotic exercises take place.
When Mayor Cornelius F. Burns is called on to speak, “the applause with which he was greeted was so long, so hearty and so vigorous that it was some moments before he could be heard.”
The mayor “prophesied that the men of to- day will be as noble and as faithful as those who served the country a half century ago.”
Rev. A. J. Higgins of Trinity Memorial Church tells the gathering that Memorial Day “should never become a day of debauch or foolish celebration. It should have as its watchword, ‘ Remember.’
“Those of us who live today are debtors to those who have fought to achieve this end. Perpetual peace and a united nation have been secured by those who fought in those early days. How then can we honor those dead heroes who suffered and died for this?
“By standing by the country, by rallying round the flag, by pledging our lives to some form of service, to uphold the freedom not only of this nation, but of the world.”